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Zoo Atlanta
'Overview' Zoo Atlanta is an Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) accredited zoological park in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1889, the Zoo is Atlanta’s oldest cultural destination and is one of the oldest continuously operating zoological institutions in the United States. Zoo Atlanta houses over 1,300 animals representing more than 220 species. Home to the nation’s largest collections of gorillas and orangutans, the Zoo is also one of only four zoos in the U.S. currently housing giant pandas. Exhibits and Animals Boundless Budgies: A Parakeet Adventure Opened in April 2009, this interactive new parakeet experience is the largest of its kind in the southeastern U.S. The aviary is home to more than 500 free-flying parakeets, and guests are permitted to hand-feed the birds. African Plains Zoo Atlanta’s African Plains showcase wildlife native to the grasslands and desert, including lions, elephants, black rhinos, meerkats and warthogs, as well as forest species, including yellow-backed duikers. A large, multi-species savanna landscape features giraffe, zebra, waterbuck, ostrich and East African crowned cranes. The Ford African Rain Forest Zoo Atlanta holds the largest collection of western lowland gorillas in North America, with 22 individuals living in social groups as of December 2009. Eighteen gorillas have been born at the Zoo since 1988, all of whom have been mother-reared or reared by a gorilla surrogate. Kali and Kazi, a rare set of twins, were born at Zoo Atlanta on October 31, 2005. Their mother, Kuchi, is the only known gorilla ever to independently rear twins in captivity. Zoo Atlanta also remains home to all five of the offspring sired by its best-known gorilla, Willie B. (ca. 1959-2000). Two of these, females Kudzoo and Sukari, have given birth to infants of their own: Macy Baby, born December 2005, and Gunther, born July 2006. The Living Treehouse, an extension of The Ford African Rain Forest completed in 2004, features a large aviary of African bird life. The open-air, treetop setting provides close views of black-and-white-ruffed lemurs, ringtailed lemurs and drills, with adjacent habitats for Angolan colobus monkeys, Schmidt’s guenons and Wolf’s guenons. Zoo Atlanta’s is the nation’s only successful drill breeding program to date, having produced roughly half of the total U.S. population of these critically endangered primates. Asian Forest Zoo Atlanta is one of only four institutions in the U.S. housing giant pandas. Parents Lun Lun and Yang Yang arrived in Atlanta as juveniles in 1999 and reside at the Zoo on loan from China. The Zoo celebrated the birth of its first cub, Mei Lan, on September 6, 2006. Mei Lan was the only giant panda cub born in the U.S. that year. A second cub, male Xi Lan, born August 30, 2008, was the only giant panda cub born in the U.S. in 2008. A third cub, Po, was born 3 November 2010, the first panda born in the US during the 2010 calendar year. Jack Black named Po after Black's character in Dreamworks Kung Fu Panda to promote the release of Kung Fu Panda 2. The Asian Forest also spotlights a number of other endangered species: Sumatran tigers, clouded leopard, red panda, Asian small-clawed otters and Komodo dragon, as well as the nation’s largest zoological collection of orangutans. Zoo Atlanta’s Director of Animal Programs has served as the Chair of the Orangutan Species Survival Plan since 1991. The Orangutan Learning Tree Project, launched at Zoo Atlanta in 2007, utilizes in-habitat touch screen technology to allow orangutans to engage in computer puzzles, games and problem-solving exercises while guests observe their activities on a linked monitor. The World of Reptiles Zoo Atlanta’s Herpetology Department is one of the largest and most diverse in North America, with over 450 reptiles and amphibians representing more than 115 species. The Zoo is the only zoological institution to successfully breed Arakan forest turtles, a critically endangered species harvested nearly to extinction for food and traditional medicine. World of Reptiles highlights include Guatemalan beaded lizards, black mamba, king cobra, reticulated python and greater siren, among hundreds of snakes, turtles, tortoises, lizards, frogs, toads and salamanders from around the world. Other points of interest include an amphibian wall presenting poison dart frogs in simulated mini-rainforests, as well as an extensive collection of native Georgia species, including American alligator, alligator snapping turtle, eastern diamond-backed rattlesnake and gopher tortoise. The World of Reptiles is the zoo's oldest public building, designed in the late 1950s and opened to the public in 1962. In 2009, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums noted that "the facility is a major concern primarily because of age," an observation they also made five years previously. The World of Reptiles once housed critically endangered gharial (a species of crocodile from India), but because the aging facility could not maintain adequate heat, they were sent to other zoos. The Orkin Children’s Zoo Outback Station centers on Australian wildlife: red kangaroos, kookaburras, Major Mitchell’s cockatoos and southern cassowary. The Outback Station Petting Zoo, designed to resemble an Australian sheep outpost, offers hands-on encounters with Kunekune pigs, Gulf Coast sheep and Boer, Nubian and Nigerian dwarf goats. The Children’s Zoo also features an authentic Georgia wetlands inhabited year-round by an American alligator and yellow-bellied sliders, as well as Base Camp Discovery, site of the Zoo’s seasonal golden lion tamarin free-ranging program. A new playground opened in KIDZone in 2007. Naked mole rats Opened in 2008, the naked mole rat habitat invites guests to “crawl into the secret lives of nature’s weirdest underground family.” Designed to simulate subterranean Africa, the experience features close, eye-level views of an active colony of naked mole rats in a network of underground chambers. On an adjacent playground, younger guests are encouraged to “tunnel and play the mole rat way.”